House of Freek
by Neonpandaz
Summary: Ash,Iris,and Cilen all prepare to venture into Opelucid City to challenge Drayden, the gym leader. But along the way, a horrible thunderstorm hits causing them to take refuge in the labyrinth nightmare that is House of Freek. *IN PROGRESS*
1. Chapter 1

The Candle

Ash awoke from the makeshift tent him,Iris,and Cilan had set up outside the woods with a start. He had awoken from a nightmare involving something about a house in a wooded area, with a mysterious light coming from the window in the attic. When he entered the house he had gone straight up to the attic to investigate. Something about it had interested him, the way it seemed to sway without a breeze blowing how it had started off as a small flicker, but soon grew to a full on flame. When he opened the door to the attic, the darkness was heavy and seemed unnatural for even though a candle was burning it only illuminated an area of about 3 feet. Worse yet was that it was held by a hand. No body, no face, no legs, just a hand. The door swung shut behind him, and in doing so blew out the candle leaving only him, the hand, and the unnatural darkness his eyes struggled to adjust to the newfound darkness, a lightning streaked across the sky illuminating the room for a few seconds. but that few seconds was all he needed to make out a figure in a tuxedo, holding what appeared to be burnt candle wax.

'One hell of a dream' he thought.

Ash quickly undressed from his pajamas, and began to dress in his usual outfit of tattered blue jeans, a jacket, and his trademark cap. He stepped out of the tent to the smell of fresh soup being made over the fire.

" 'Morning." Celin said.

"Good Morning Ash!" Iris yelled from atop a tree. Iris preferred to sleep in the treetops, (something Ash never understood.) than to sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag. She said that the ground was, "just to icky." for her to sleep on. Ash gave a quick nod to both of them, then sat down by the fire. His dream still disturbed him. He remembered reading something in one of Shauntal's books that read,"Some dreams carry an accurate representation of what the future holds for the dreamer."

"Wait, so every time you dream something, it comes true?" he had asked her.

"No silly,only the most vivid of dreams ever even have a chance of being turned into reality." She had replied. "Otherwise, the world would be full of psychics, and lets face it it's no fun when you know what's going to happen."

She was very much right. Ash preferred to not know what was coming next. He liked to jump right into situations and watch how different scenarios played out. Cilan snapped him back to reality.

"You O.K Ash? You seem a little distracted."

"I'm fine really! It's just I had a nightmare last night and it's kind of getting on my nerves."

"Aw, do you wanna talk about it?" Iris called from her tree.

"No, I really just don't want to think about it. So anyways," he said getting up, "we should probably get moving towards Opelucid City. I mean, Celin and I are challenging the gym right?"

"That's right!" Celin said. "This will be my first gym leader battle!"

"Don't you think you have an unfair advantage?" Iris said FINALLY coming down from her tree. "I mean, you are a gym leader yourself."

"You don;t have much room to talk." Celin retaliated. "You're the GYM LEADER."

Iris shrugged.

"Yeah but I got Drayden to cover my shift while I was gone, so you'll be fighting him."

Thunder rumbled over head.

"Well I guess we should keep moving." Cilen said.

"Yeah, I bet you're right." Ash replied. They had just started moving when the first droplets of rain began to fall.


	2. Chapter 2

Arrival

Thunder rumbled over head as rain mercilessly slashed at Iris,Ash,Pikachu and Cilan. They were just a few miles outside of Opelucid city now, but they knew if they continued all the way through hail would eventually fall and that would mean broken bones. Something they couldn't afford. They all knew they had to find shelter fast, but that seemed highly unlikely. Here they were running in the middle of the woods with no shelter during a thunderstorm that topped the danger scales. Great. Ash looked back to see how the others were holding up. Iris seemed tired from running non-stop but otherwise fine. Cilan was the one he was worried about. When the rain had just started getting heavy, Cilan had rolled his ankle on a rock. His ankle had swollen to the size of a Drifloom. They offered to stop and try to bandage it but he had insisted that they press on. His condition was the same as Iris's, but they were noticeable signs of pain. With every step he took on his left foot he grimaced. Ash knew that they had to found a house, a shack, anything fast before Cilan tore a tissue in his foot. They stopped under an oak tree to take a short break.

"Man!" Iris exclaimed panting. "This rain is so cold it hurts! And not to mention it's COMPLETELY screwing up my hair!"

"Well, we can't stay under this tree for much longer." Ash told them.

"Why not? It's way better under here than out there!" Iris retorted.

"Yeah but haven;t you heard the thing about tall trees and thunderstorms? The taller something is the more susceptible to a lightning strike. If we're under here and the tree gets struck by lightning…"Ash trailed off.

"You're rather quiet Cilan." Iris said.

Cilan looked up, and appeared to be dozing off.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just starting to hurt more now that I've stopped moving." Ash once again looked ahead then got an idea. He took out the poke ball containing Unfezant ad threw it. Unfezant came out with a high pitched chirp.

"Unfezant, I need you to fly ahead and tell me if you see any type of house or something we could stay in until this storm clears, O.K?"

Unfezant happily chirped and flew off into the storm. The group sat in silence for what seemed like forever. They just listened to the rain hit the leaves atop the tree and watched it fall into the soft mushy ground. Cilan began to rub his swollen ankle and grit his teeth against the pain. He didn't want the others to worry about him, he had to take care of this him self. Iris, played with her hair and began to think about Opelucid City. She missed the high class technology and the easy, carefree life style. Of course she was very happy here and wouldn't change her decision to leave but sometimes she did get a little homesick. And as for Pikachu well he snoozed happily on Ash's shoulder as usual. Ash was beginning to worry about Unfezant and thought about going to look for her but soon heard the flapping of enormous wings and watched as the giant bird pokemon flew into view.

"Did you find anything?" Ash called. Unfezant chirped happily and flapped it's wings a little faster as if signaling for them to follow. They put their bags over their shoulders and once again ran out into the freezing rain.

After a little ways of running they came to a trail that led off the main road. Unfezant flew down the path and the others followed. The trees seemed perfectly aligned down the path and the hedges were fully clipped. Streetlights determined to shine through the rain buzzed loudly overhead. Eventually Unfezant stopped in front of an enormous household with a sign out front that read, "House of Ferek.

"Good job Unfezant." Ash complimented as he called her back into her poke ball. The group stepped up the marble stairs to the front door. The house itself was beautiful. Marble pillars supported a giant awning that stretched over the entire length of the patio. All of the floor was made out of hardwood and the windows were perfectly polished to allow maximum light to shine through. Giant drapes covered the top floors windows. But the onet thing that bothered Ash was the faint candlelight coming from the attic window. They knocked once on the door. Then again. Then again. Ash jiggled the door knob and the massive wood door slowly opened with a creek. Hesitantly, Ash, Iris, Celin and Pikachu all stepped into House of Freek.


	3. Unsettling in

Unsettling in

Iris peeked her head in through the door first. The doors themselves were heavy and a sign above them read."est.1932"

"Hello?" She called. But she only heard her own voice echoing through the house in return. "Doesn't seem like anyones here." She said to the others stepping inside. Cilan limped in after her and Ash and Pikachu shortly followed. The inside of the house was just as gorgeous as the outside. Leather couches stretched along the walls of way appeared to be a lobby or mudroom of sorts. The walls were painted a soothing shade of blue that was shaded by the faint light creeping in throug the majestic windows. A living room containing a stone fireplace, animal skin rug, and to armchairs with a wood coffee table were spread evenly in the room. The stair case was an upward spiral of marble steps and iron hand rails. A chandelier hung over them with a dazzling assortments of jewels and light. Paintings of forests, oceans, and some of the sky lined the walls. It was truly beautiful. The group gasped as they struggled to take in everything they had just seen. And this was just the entrance. Imagine what everything else looked like, the kitchen, the parlor, the upstairs, master bedroom. The list was endless. What additional features could this house hold? Could there be a swimming pool? Maybe a home movie theatre. It boggled their minds. Then, something hit Ash like a train. Something that disturbed him. Something that made him think. And it sent a shiver down his spine. If this house was so old, and turns out to be abandoned, why is it in such great condition? Why were the paintings neatly dusted and the chairs perfectly arranged. Why wasn't there cobwebs hanging from the chandelier? Why are the pillows perfectly fluffed? Why are the windows perfectly polished? Why….is there a live candle burning in the attic? As if on cue, footsteps started echoing from upstairs. The whole group turned their heads upward and suspiciously looked for the cause. The footsteps increased in volume. They were getting closer. 30 feet away, 20 feet, 15, 10, 8, 4, 2, 1. Then she stepped into view. Standing atop the stairs was a beautiful woman dressed in a black strapless dress that covered her feet. The patterns on the dress were intricate and resembled snakes traveling up her and into her long sleeves. Her hair was a strawberry blonde color and her skin was a perfect pale shade. Bright red lipstick popped out in a gorgeous way that seemed to make the rest of her face come alive. Her eyes were the bluest of blues and her nails were grown to perfection. Iris thought she resembled a Barbie doll. She was soon joined by three men in tuxedos and three women in french maid outfits. Both groups stared at each other for what seemed like hours, but in reality was 10 seconds. Finally the women broke the silence. She raised her arms, and began to speak with a slight french accent.

"Velcome to my wonderful home." She said loudly. "I trust zat you were vorced in by ze storm yes? Vell, I don't know you but you are velcome to stay here for as long as you wish."

Ash stepped forward. "Please allow us to introduce ourselves. My names Ash and this is Cilan and Iris.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried questioningly.

"Oh, right and this is Pikachu. Yes, it was the storm that brought us in. It got to the point where we feared hail would fall and we knew we had to find shelter soon. We began looking and we found your home. At first we thought it was abandoned but, well, apparently it's…not." Ash said the last sentence a little awkwardly. The woman appeared to be studying them. She tilted her head upwards a tad exposing her perfectly shaped cheekbones.

"Vell, I guess I should introduce myself zen to. My name, is Madame Freek. But you may call me Isa. These are my servants. Don't worry you will learn their names in time. I have just finished vatching ze weather channel. This storm is one of the worst Unova has seen in a century. They expect it to last for a whole week. You are welcome to stay until zen. But just remember, this is MY house, therefore I expect you to follow my rules. I do have many normal rules like, don't run around ze halls, clean up after yourself, ze usual. But their is one rule you must never, ever break. DO NOT under any circumstances go into ze attic. Don't worry it's nothing entirely evil. I just have some important things up there I would like to save as family heirlooms…. I have an idea. Why don't we get to know each other more over dinner, yes? I will have half my servants show you to your room and the other half will prepare dinner." She sent the women down the stairs to help Ash,Iris,and Cilan to their rooms and she sent the men to prepare dinner. While all this was happening Isa slipped up the attic stairs and into the attic. She closed the door gently as to not make a sound. She then turned to face the figure standing by the candle.

"Vell sir. It appears we have new subjects to test, no?" She said. The figure nodded and leaned down towards the candle. He then blew it out


End file.
